title: Intrinsically disordered protein threads through the bacterial outer-membrane porin OmpF.
abstract: Porins are β-barrel outer-membrane proteins through which small solutes and metabolites diffuse that are also exploited during cell death. We have studied how the bacteriocin colicin E9 (ColE9) assembles a cytotoxic translocon at the surface of Escherichia coli that incorporates the trimeric porin OmpF. Formation of the translocon involved ColE9's unstructured N-terminal domain threading in opposite directions through two OmpF subunits, capturing its target TolB on the other side of the membrane in a fixed orientation that triggers colicin import. Thus, an intrinsically disordered protein can tunnel through the narrow pores of an oligomeric porin to deliver an epitope signal to the cell to initiate cell death.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, UK.
authors.forename: Nicholas G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Housden
authors.forename: Jonathan T S
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Hopper
authors.forename: Natalya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lukoyanova
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rodriguez-Larrea
authors.forename: Justyna A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Wojdyla
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaminska
authors.forename: Hagan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bayley
authors.forename: Helen R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Saibil
authors.forename: Carol V
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kleanthous
mesh_terms: D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D003087:Colicins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D033903:Periplasmic Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D018272:Porins / Q000378:metabolism*; D055503:Protein Multimerization; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D021381:Protein Transport
chemical_list: D003087:Colicins; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; C109237:OmpF protein; D033903:Periplasmic Proteins; D018272:Porins; C488859:immE9 protein, E coli; C062094:tolB protein, E coli